Arsenal are back in the Champions League final for the first time in 20 years, and only the second time in the club’s history, after Bukayo Saka scored the winner against Atlético Madrid to book their place in the Budapest showpiece.
The 24-year-old was Arsenal’s most consistent attacking threat against Atlético and delivered when it mattered most. Mikel Arteta said Saka had come back in the most important period of the season, adding that he was fresh, his mind was fresh and his hunger was at the highest possible height. Arteta said Saka needed a performance like that to impact the team, and that is exactly what he gave them.
It was the kind of night Arsenal have been chasing for two decades. Saka’s goal sent them into a final they have not reached since that previous run, and it arrived after a campaign in which the club had begun to feel as if the season was slipping away over the first few months of the year.
The turnaround matters because Arsenal had missed Saka at two different points. They were without him when injury kept him out, and they were also short of the version of him who can bend a match on his own. Before his recent goal and assist against Fulham, he had just nine goal contributions in the current campaign, a steep drop from the 16 he registered in the Premier League last season.
Against Fulham, Saka twisted Raúl Jiménez to set up Viktor Gyökeres and then scored a near-post finish to make it 2-0, a reminder of the directness Arsenal had lacked on the right side. The team often clusters possession sequences down the left to open space for him, and when he is sharp enough to attack that space, Arsenal become a different side.
That is why the final months of the season now carry so much weight for both club and country. Thomas Tuchel is reliant on Saka as a source of verticality and direct threat on the right wing, and England have long treated him as their first-choice on that side. If he is not in peak condition, they risk another tournament ending the way Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 did, short of the standard they expected.
For Arsenal, though, the immediate picture is simpler. They found their way back to Europe’s biggest stage because Saka was ready when the pressure was highest. That is the difference between a season that fades and one that still has a final to play.
